Chip's Workshop 2 is a cross-platform level editor program for the game Chip's Challenge. It has been tested on Linux and Windows, and should also work on Mac systems.
Chip's Workshop is still in the beta phase, and so it is likely to have quite a few bugs. If something doesn't seem to work properly, please report the problem to chipw@chrise.me.uk.
When you run the Chip's Workshop program, you will be presented with an empty level editor window.
If you wish to create a new level set, choose New from the File menu. To add your first level, click the + button on the left.
If you wish to open a level set, choose Open from the File menu. You will be presented with a file dialog. When you open a file, no level will be initially selected. Select the level you wish to edit in the list on the left.
The level map appears to the right. If you move the mouse cursor over the map, the status bar at the bottom of the window will show the coordinates of your location, and information about the tiles at that position. To select a tile to place, click the Tiles tab at the bottom-left. You may then choose the tile you want from the list. Then, click on the level map where you want to place the new tile.
The tile you place will, by default, become the only one in its location.
A map location may in fact contain up to two tiles: A "creature", and a "non-creature". Chip, all monsters and blocks are considered to be creatures; all other tiles are non-creatures. To place both tiles in a location, simply hold down the Shift key while placing the second tile. It will automatically go into the correct layer for its type.
Use the "empty" tile to erase previously placed tiles. By default, it will erase both tiles in the selected location. If you wish to erase only the creature tile, hold down the Control key. If you wish to erase only the non-creature tile, hold down the Shift key.
Trap and clone buttons need to be connected to their targets with wires in order to function. When a trap or clone machine is placed, it is automatically selected (indicated by being displayed inverted). Buttons placed of the appropriate type will then be automatically wired to the selected target. Wires will, by default, be drawn on the level map, and you can see a list of wires connected to a tile by moving the mouse over it and looking in the status bar.
If you wish to add or remove a wire later, choose the appropriate wire type (trap or clone) from the tile selector. To add wires, click first on the trap or clone machine, then on each button that you wish to connect to it. To remove the wires connected to a tile, hold down the Control key and click on the tile.
If you have a middle mouse button, you may alternatively hold down the Shift key and click with the middle mouse button to add wires, or hold down the Control and Shift keys and click with the middle mouse button to remove wires. This method can be used without first selecting the wire from the tile selector.
If you choose the "rectangle select" tool from the tile selector, you may click and drag to select a rectangular area of the level map. To deselect the current area, hold down the Control key and click. While an area is selected, any tiles placed within it will be applied to all selected locations. This can be useful for filling a large area of the map with tiles such as water.
If you have a middle mouse button, you may use this for selection rather than choosing the "rectangle select" tool.
To view a list of all levels in the level set, click the Levels tab at the bottom-left of the window. Click on a level in the list to select it for editing. Use the + button above the list to create a new level. If you wish to delete the current level, use the - button. The ^ and v buttons may be used to change the order of the levels in the level set.
The ... button opens the level properties dialog. This can also be opened from the Edit menu. This dialog enables you to change various level options, including the title, the password (click the button to randomly generate one), the number of chips required (the number of chips in the level is automatically displayed below), the time limit (use 0 for no limit), and the level hint.
You can also select the rule set that the level set is designed to be played in. Note that this will be applied to all levels in the set. If your level set is playable in both MS and Lynx rule sets, choose MS here.
Entire levels and individual areas of the map may be transferred using the clipboard.
To copy an entire level to the clipboard, select it in the level list, ensure that no area of the map is selected, then choose Copy from the Edit menu. To paste a level from the clipboard, select the level after which you want to insert it, then choose Paste from the Edit menu.
To copy a map area to the clipboard, select it and then choose Copy from the Edit menu. To paste a map area from the clipboard, select the top-left corner of the destination area, then choose Paste from the Edit menu.
Cut may be used to remove the level or map area from its present location once it has been copied to the clipboard.
You may reverse modifications to the level set by choosing Undo from the Edit menu. You may reapply modifications that have been removed in this way by choosing Redo.
The View menu may be used to change various display options:
You can also create multiple windows for the same level set, each of which can have different view settings, and a different level selected.
If you wish to view a level set without the risk of making accidental changes, you may turn on Read-only mode from the Edit menu. Caution: Read-only selection is not supported directly from the file selector, although a checkbox may erroneously appear.
The File menu enables you to create or open a new level set or save the current level set. The default filename extension for saving level sets is set to ".ccl" - this is exactly the same file format as Microsoft Chip's Challenge .dat files, but is more distinctive.
You can have multiple documents open at once, so opening a new level set will not cause the currently open one to close.
Note that the Close option on the File menu will close all editor windows for the current level set. The Quit option will close all currently open level sets.
When working on a level, it is often helpful to be able to quickly start the game to see the effects of a change. The Playtest menu allows you to start playing the currently selected level directly from the editor. Currently this only works with Tile World, or other programs with the same command line interface.
In particular, chips.exe is not supported.
Caution: Solutions and scores achieved during playtesting will not be saved. You must start the game in the normal manner from outside the editor if you wish to record solutions or keep track of scores.
Before you can start playtesting, you must set up a profile with the details of the program to use. To do this, choose Configure from the Playtest menu, and then click Add in the dialog box that appears. Enter a name for this playtesting option (this name will appear in the Playtest menu) and select the program to run. You can also select a rule set that will be used for playtesting when this option is chosen.
Once you have entered the settings, you can use the Test button to see whether they work. If the settings are correct, a simple level called TEST will open in the game. When you are ready, click OK to add the playtesting profile to the list.
It is possible to add several profiles to the list, for instance one for the MS rule set and one for the Lynx rule set. Note that when clicking Add, the currently selected profile (if any) will be copied into the dialog. This may help when adding multiple similar profiles. When finished, click OK to save the profiles.
Now you can start playtesting the current level by choosing the desired profile from the Playtest menu. To start the game more quickly, you may use the keyboard shortcut Alt+P followed by the number of the profile to use.
The right mouse button can be used to create invalid combinations of tiles, such as a tile buried underneath a non-creature, or a stack of two creatures.
By default, clicking with the right mouse button will cause the selected tile to be placed on the lower map layer, without affecting the upper layer.
Hold down Shift to place the tile on the upper layer instead.
When a monster is selected, you may hold down the Control key while placing it to create an invalid stationary monster tile. This looks like a normal monster, and will be fatal to Chip if he steps on it, but it will not move.
Note: This facility should not be used for making normal traps or clone machines.
From the Edit menu, you can open the Monster list editor. The current monster movement list will be shown at the top; the controls below can be used to edit the monster order, or add and remove monsters from the list.
The bottom list shows locations containing monster tiles which have no entry on the monster list; if you select one of these, the coordinates will automatically be filled in next to the Add button, ready to be added to the list.
You may create a wire of either type between arbitrary map locations by selecting the wire type, holding down the Shift key and clicking with the right mouse button where the "target" end of the wire should be, then releasing Shift and clicking with the right mouse button where the "button" end of the wire should be. To place multiple wires of the same type in the same direction between the same two tiles, additionally hold down the Control key.
Various tile ID codes can be placed into the level map which do not actually represent a real tile. Some of these can have corresponding images. Chip's Workshop designates these as "[XX] invalid", where XX is the hexadecimal representation of the tile ID, followed by a description of the image commonly associated with the ID, where there is one.
If you wish to place these invalid tile codes in your own levels, you may select any 8-bit tile code from the "IDs" tab on the left.
The level properties dialog allows you to adjust a couple of extra values in the level set file:
Chip's Workshop 2.0.6 is Copyright 2008-2011 Christopher Elsby.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of version 3 of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
View version 3 of the GNU General Public LicenseIf the above link does not work, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.